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Everyone deserves a second chance. That is a basic tenet that can be applied everywhere from a misdeed by a child in an elementary school class through a person convicted in court and about to be sentenced.

Councilman Bill Dixon of Plymouth Borough is the target of his fellow council members, who have hired special counsel to determine whether Dixon can remain in office.

It seems Dixon has a decades-old criminal record. State charges have been wiped away by a pardon from Gov. Tom Corbett and a petition may be filed seeking a federal pardon.

Nonetheless, Dixon has been a solid citizen. He is a Vietnam War veteran and he has worked for UGI for 25 years. He is active in the community, including coaching youth sports, and he won election to council with the highest vote count of all candidates.

Dixon's attorney calls the move "small-town politics at its worst." On its face, it appears there may be more than a smattering of truth in the statement.

Dixon is considered a reformer in a town that has a longtime, solidly entrenched political machine. In the hard-ball politics that we have seen often in Luzerne County and its municipalities and school districts, the Dixon matter has a peculiar bent.

Spending taxpayer money on action to oust Dixon e is wasteful and divisive. Plymouth has other challenges toward which money would be better funneled.

Whatever Dixon did in the past is well in the past. He has served his sentences and he has earned a pardon on the state level with a chance for another on the federal level.

Bill Dixon deserves his second chance at life. As that chance includes public service beyond volunteerism, in service on the town council, to which the voters elected him despite whispers about his past, we urge Plymouth Borough Council to embrace and encourage this second-chance opportunity.

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